The Opposite of Science

If you have a strong (and preferably empty) stomach, click on the title (above.)

Lord May, the president of the British Science Association, said religion may have helped protect human society from itself in the past and it may be needed again.

Speaking on the eve of the association’s annual conference, the committed atheist said he was worried the world was on a “calamitous trajectory” brought on by its failure to co-ordinate measures against global warming.

He said that no country was prepared to take the lead and a “punisher” was needed to make sure the rules of co-operation were not broken.

The former Government chief scientific advisor said in the past that was God and it might be time again for religion to fill the gap.

Republicans Surrender

After everything that Republicans and Democrats agreed on before the last presidential election, there was only one real issue in President Obama's proposal to extend government control of health care financing in the United States, from nearly total to fully totalitarian: whether the transfer (at gunpoint) of the money used to pay for the care of those who did not obtain insurance before they got sick, will be done openly through the tax system, or covertly, by forcing health insurance companies (1) to "insure" those with pre-existing conditions, and (2) to tax their other customers for the cost. Once the alleged opponents of Obama's plan agree to hide the tax for "universal health care" in premiums paid for genuine health insurance, we know that they are scumbags peddling their alleged principles for pull, and that for them, any remaining "opposition" is just a matter of haggling over price.

And now, the official Republican response to Obama's proposal: "Here are four areas -- four important areas where we can agree, right now: One, all individuals should have access to coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions. ..."

John David Lewis, in an article about Obama's plan in The Objective Standard (published the day after, but presumably written long before) put it like this: "If the Republicans compromise, (then) they will have once again capitulated to their opponents, abandoned liberty, and ruined the opportunity to redirect this nation toward its founding moral principle: individual rights, protected under a constitution in a free republic."

As of the previous evening this is no longer an "If..." The Republican Party has capitulated, much as I figured it would, but far more explicitly ("important areas where we can agree, right now") than I thought. After this, those former advocates of freedom who are still willing to pretend otherwise, and participate in "Tea Parties" and other Republican-sponsored events, can read what they are collaborating with - in black-on-white electronic ink. It remains to be seen how many will act the role of self-blinded stooges, of "useful idiots" playing mirror-image to "single payer" advocates at Obama rallies, even after having been explicitly told, by the Republicans themselves, what they are bearding for.

(retrieved original) PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students

The original totalitarian version of the Department of Education guidance for President Obama's planned speech to primary school students has been systematically replaced - in every readily found repository on the Web, and of course on the Department of Education site linked to my previous blog post - with a new version in which the more totalitarian parts have been bowdlerized out of the text. Finally, an occasion to show that I can actually do what I teach: I located an html copy of the original in the Google indexer cache and copied it to my archive. The title, above, of THIS blog posting will take you to a true copy of the original - just in case you are one of the millions who have been left to wonder what the big fuss was about.

Of course, not only have the traces of the original official guidance document disappeared from the scene of the crime, but El Presidente now plans to deliver (a revised version, no doubt, of) his education speech on Monday before the start of school, for advance parental approval. To whomever is tempted to find out what Our Dear Leader originally planned to say to the kids, I remind you that breaking into the recycle folder of the President's computer is a Federal Felony. So please don't. I'm certain that The Onion will publish a reasonable facsimile.

Johnny Can't Think

Leonard Peikoff's 1984 Ford Hall Forum lecture "Why Johnny Can't Think" was considered, by every non-Objectivist I ever discussed it with, an extreme exaggeration. Fast-forward to 2009.

The New York Times favors Obama's proposal for making government-managed health care mandatory for everyone, so it can hardly be accused of being uncharitable in describing a rally of supporters. Here is a not untypical excerpt (the rest is much the same, but I'm keeping the quote to a length permitted by fair use:)

Danielle Butler, for example, a graphic designer from Phoenix, said she received an e-mail message from Organizing for America inviting her to attend the rally, and came there to support the president even though health insurance has never been a big issue for her.

“I volunteered at his campaign and just really want to stand behind Obama’s initiatives,” said Ms. Butler, 29. “I support the changes that he wants to bring to our country,” she added. Ms. Butler said that when the rally was over, she felt charged up, but had not learned much new about health care.

Individual motives for attending were also diverse. At a rally at North High School in Denver that drew about 1,500 people, Martha Sullivan was struggling, and failing, to attach a sign that read “Single Payer,” to a chain-link fence in the parking lot. Ms. Sullivan said she was motivated by faith — the United Church of Christ where she worships has urged its members to support health care for all.

“I think people who have Christian beliefs should stand up and say, ‘This is what Jesus would have wanted,’ ” said Ms. Sullivan, 59.

Other people were stoked by personal causes that seemed in some cases only peripheral to a broader societal debate.

“I’m out here if it will help one more kid get medication,” said Johari Ade-Green, 58, of Denver, who was holding a sign with a picture of her grandson, Zumante Lucero, who died in July at age 9 from complications of asthma. Her grandson had insurance under Medicaid and Social Security, she said, but through a mix-up was denied medication.

The article reads like a museum of epistemic pathologies. The last instance is especially telling. The woman's grandson was killed by government health care - and she thinks that she will "help" other kids by making it mandatory for all Americans. Ayn Rand's diagnosis of this kind of pseudo-cognition - "Poison as food, poison as antidote" - was never more directly observable.

PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama's Address to Students

Click the title for official instructions from the US Department of Education. Those parallels are getting more parallel every day....

Update: The document at the link above, on the official US Department of Education site, has been replaced with new version, with the totalitarian parts bowdlerized out of it. For the original version, please see my new blog posting, farther above.

"Don't you ever question my reality!" (Part 2)

Hope you didn't miss Part 1, posted August 21 (the funniest epistemological spectacle of the year. No, it is not from The Onion.) The theater continues:

Lauren Stratford said of the decision to become a holocaust survivor without having actually suffered the holocaust, “I think only the individual can decide if he/she is a survivor.” .... Nobody shows a hint of doubt when a speaker by the name of “Royal”, at all of about forty years of age, stands before us (in 2009) to claim that she was a personal slave to nazi doctor Josef Mengele.